Kill-adelphia

Sadly, the city of Philadelphia has not learned any lessons from the horrendous murder rate that it experienced last year. Over 410 people were killed (and by "killed" I'm taking murders) in this city last year.

What did the city leaders do about it? Oh, they expressed concern. They assembled meetings to discuss the escalating violence. They sent police officers to meet with neighborhood leaders. They moved police from quieter areas into the areas of violence. Oh, did I mention that they expressed concern and had meetings? Yeah. That's some great leadership in this city.

And now, today, Tuesday, March 28, 2007......86 days into the new year of 2007, and the murder rate is already at 95. NINETY-FIVE PEOPLE KILLED IN 86 DAYS!!!

But, the brain-trust in City Hall has expressed concern. So, I guess, that means that the killing will soon stop?

University Of Maine Ice Hockey Advances to Frozen Four!

You can have your damn college basketball nonsense. The real action in college sports is hockey, and my hometown University of Maine (Orono, ME) Black Bears mens hockey team has advanced to the Frozen Four for the 4th time in the last 6 years. They beat Massachusetts (Amherst) by a score of 3-1 last night.

Read about it here over on ESPN's website.

The Black Bears will square off in their semi-final game against the Michigan State Wolverines on Thursday, April 5, and will then (hopefully) advance to the finals where they will play the winner of the other semifinal game (those teams have not been decided yet as they still have playoff games to play as of this writing) on Saturday, April 7.

GO BLACK BEARS!

Lost, Season 3, Episode 13, “The Man From Tallahassee” (3/21/07)

There’s been a lot of John Locke this second-half-of-the-season, and now we get a Locke flashback that gives us more detail into this man’s life. And what a life it’s been ,eh?

Locke: So it was a fall from an 8 story window that broke John’s back, and put him in the wheelchair for 4 years. Ouch. And wouldn’t you know it, 4 and 8 are both one of the numbers! Locke’s flashback shows him learning of his father’s (Anthony Cooper) conning of a woman whose son is worth $1.2 million. When the son, Peter Talbot, finds John through medical records tying him to the donated kidney he gave to Cooper, Peter tells him what’s going on. Locke confronts his father, telling him to call off the con/marriage to the woman, or Locke will tell her who he is and what Cooper’s all about. Cooper says he’ll call it off, and when Peter turns up dead, Locke blames Anthony. While confronting him about this death, Anthony tells Locke that the woman called off the wedding. When Locke goes to a phone to call her to confirm this, Cooper (obviously lying about her calling off the wedding and/or him calling it off) tackles Locke, but the momentum carries Locke through the hotel window, and he goes crashing to the ground below. In the hospital later, detectives tell Locke that they couldn’t find his father and believe he fled to Mexico. When they leave, a physical therapist comes in and puts Locke in a wheelchair for the first time. Realizing the gravity (no pun intended) of his situation, Locke breaks down and cries. On the island, however, while Sayid and Kate were looking for Jack, Locke broke into Ben’s room, and told him he wanted to know where the submarine was. His intent? To blow it up and prevent any more people from coming, or going, from the island. Ben tells Locke that his power over his people is in trouble, and if Locke blows up the sub, he’ll lose control over them. He indicates that there is a “magic box” on the island where anything you can dream of will appear in it. Locke says he hopes the box is big enough to dream up a sub (as he intends to blow it up). Ben tells Locke he knows how he got hurt, how he lived in the wheelchair, and wants to know the pain he felt emotionally when his dad tried to kill him. This brings up an internal anger in Locke, and then Ben asks for Richard to bring him “The man from Tallahassee”, and brings John to the magic box, and there inside, is his dad, Anthony Cooper, tied up and gagged.
“Dad?”, Locke says, befuddled by this development. Okay, John is going to be key to this story, but we’ve known that. His button pushing antics and tendency to blow things up may be signs of him being crazy, but his “communion” with the island (as Ben put it) means he has a connection. Why else would he have healed as soon as getting to the island, whereas Ben is NOT healing from him surgery. Locke does say something interesting to Ben: “If you only knew what this place really was”, implying that he knows something Ben doesn’t. Perhaps a result of him looking into the SMonster in Season 1?

Anthony Cooper: Locke’s “dad”, going by the name of Adam Seward in his con with the woman, but I’m beginning to question whether or not he really is Locke’s dad. This guy is a con man, and I quite honestly think he may have been the one who conned Sawyer’s parents out of their money. But this guy definitely has something to do with Dharma or Widmore Industries, in my opinion. With all that Ben knew about Locke, it had to come from someone/somewhere, and I think he’s the connection. And, he’s a dirtbag. Did you notice that when he was drinking with John, he was pouring McCutcheon Whiskey?? Quiz Time to See Who’s Paying Attention: Where have we seen McCutcheon Whiskey before? (Hint: We’ve seen it twice, but get one correct and you win a another week of getting this wrap-up email!! Get it wrong, and it’s fish-biscuits for a week……) So, the question becomes: was Cooper caught by one of the recruiters (like Richard Alpert) and brought to the island, OR was he already there, and him being tied up in the room is just a façade to further string Locke along??? You be the judge.

Ben: Ben admits to Locke to being born on the island, but everyone else was brought there in the sub. His manipulation powers are good and it shows when he keeps working Locke about blowing up the sub (all the while hoping he would do it) and questioning him about his dad. Then he tells Locke “somewhere on this island is a very large box” and whatever you wished for would be in it. And VOILA! There’s Locke’s dad, in the box. (Guess he could’ve wished for a Dick In The Box! Ha ha! You all get that one, right???) Ben knew that by blowing up the sub, Jack wouldn’t be able to leave, and Ben would come out looking good to his people because now there would be a doctor on the island. And, Ben wouldn’t be accountable for breaking his word to let Jack go because it wasn’t Ben who stopped Jack from leaving, it was Locke who did so by blowing up Jack’s way off the island, the sub. That Ben is one fart smella…I mean smart fella! But, Locke figured out that Ben was playing him. After all, if Ben wanted Locke to be without any weapons, he had the opportunity to take the C4 out of the backpack, which he did not do. When Locke asked why Ben was so hell-bent on keeping Locke around, he repeats back to Locke something Locke said to him earlier: “Because, John, I’m in the wheelchair, and you’re not”, meaning that the island healed Locke immediately after the crash, but it has not healed Ben, the long-time resident. Ben knows that Locke holds some kind of key to finding out the true nature of the island. Funny that Ben told Locke that he ate most of the “Dark” meat on the chicken. I guess you are what you eat….dark. Ben totally played John like a fiddle.

Rousseau: So, for the sake of argument, let’s say that Alex REALLY is Rousseau’s daughter and not Ben’s. That leaves the chance that Alex was a taken-child and not naturally born to Rousseau and Ben when Rousseau crashed on the island in her boat with her crew. (Note: where is the wreckage from her boat if she did indeed crash there? Why haven’t any of the LOSTIES asked her this???) If Alex was born to Rousseau and Ben, then that would mean that Rousseau coupled with Ben after she crashed on the island. And, it would mean that last season, Rousseau intentionally turned Ben over to the Losties (when she caught him in the net) because she wanted to find out about her daughter and maybe he wouldn’t tell her….? Or, she’s one of them, never crashed on the island but has lived there all along, and maybe has been banished. In any event, when she turned Ben over to the Losties, she knew all about Ben and the Others, after all she did warn the Losties “don’t believe anything he says”. I’m not sure I believe anything SHE says, although the look on her face when she saw Alex was a look of love and of someone who has not seen a loved one in a very long time. She’s a wildcard.

Alex: Ben’s daughter? Rousseau’s daughter? Not so sure at this point, but she is somebody’s daughter! Her role in this episode was slight but important. When Locke took her hostage while in Ben’s room, you could see that she cared about Ben, if only a little. It did get planted in her mind by Sayid, however, that maybe her Mom wasn’t dead as she thought, and she was only being told that by the Others because that’s what they wanted her to believe. She did tell Locke that Ben was a manipulator, a con man. It was nice when Locke apologized to her for using her as a hostage, indicating that Locke is NOT out to get everyone on the island…only the “bad/dark” ones, perhaps?

Richard Alpert: The guy who was recruiting Juliet in the “Not in Portland” episode is on the island. Anybody besides me think he was the one who brought Anthony Cooper to the island?

Jack: Jack is living in one of the Others’ residences when Kate finds him. He tells her that he didn’t want her to come back for him and says they’re watching him and for her to “GET OUT”! Too late. The Others capture Kate, but Jack later tells her about the deal he made with them. They’ll send him home, and he says that this is the only way for him to get help back to rescue the Other Losties. He says he’ll come back for her. Of course, that doesn’t happen when, as he’s being brought to the dock to board the sub, he finally sees Locke, asks “What are you doing here?”, to which Locke says “Sorry, Jack”. Jack: “Sorry for what?” Kaboom. Sub blows up and sinks. (Jack was good on the piano, eh? So, he was either a skilled pianist before he got to the island, or maybe the island gave him the talent. Ha ha.)

Kate: Is confused, of course, about the change in attitude Jack has now that he’s living the Others. She learns from Jack that the kids are safe, and not much else.

Misc:

1. Galaga: Though it wasn’t mentioned in this episode, the sub’s name is the “Galaga”, as we learned in an episode earlier this season. And the shot of Locke looking down the sub hatch was very similar to Locke looking down the first hatch at the end of Season 1.

2. Michael and Walt: Where are they??????? Probably let us know in the season-ending cliffhanger.

3. Penelope Widmore: Keep in mind that Penelope (Des’ girlfriend) and her team have located the island because of the electromagnetic pulse that Desmond caused, and should be looking for him. I expect that she’ll play a part in an episode before the end of the season.

4. Juxtaposition: Locke helping Ben into his wheelchair, and then therapist helping Locke into his.

5. Locations:

a. Bolivia is the location mentioned in the news broadcast Locke was watching
b. Ontario is the “home” that Adam Seward (aka Anthony Cooper) said he was from to the woman he was conning according to her son
c. Tallahassee – where Cooper was from……?
d. Tustin, CA was the city where Locke worked at the box factory

6. Numbers:
a. Locke fell 8 stories, and was in the wheelchair for 4 years

7. Did you notice the pictures of Alex on the wall of Ben’s room?

8. There was a tan car in the parking lot in Locke's flashback, and it looked exactly like the one that hit Michael in his Season 1 flashback, and like the one that almost hit Locke in his Season 2 flashback. Is this car somehow related to the other instances, or just a coincidence?

Whew! That's a lot. Let me know what I missed. Comments are welcomed!!

Until next week,

Namaste.


Cool LOST sites for screen shots and chatter:
http://lost.cubit.net/forum/index.php

http://darkufo.blogspot.com/

What's The Point?

Okay, I'm trying to hard to figure this out, but what the fuck is the point of taking this picture? Who is who?

"Ah yes, there's Mulhalla on the right, and Maleena in the middle. Can you guess who's on the end??"

Oh yeah. Taking this picture makes a whole lot of sense.

This should be a caption contest picture, eh?

Lost, Season 3, Episode 12, “Par Avion” (3/14/07)

This week we got a Clarie-flashback episode, and I have to say how happy I was that we got a Claire episode where she wasn’t yelling “MY BAYYYY-BEEEEE!!” every 5 minutes.

Par Avion is French for “By Air”.

Claire: We see Claire and her mother the victims of a two-car collision. Claire escapes with minor injuries, but her mom is left comatose being kept alive by machines. Goth Claire is a troubled child, and now she faces the future of a comatose mother and huge hospital bills. But wait, the hospital bills are being picked up by a man who claims to be Claire’s father, a man we all know to be Christian Sheppard, Jack’s dad. Claire is not interested in him coming back into her life. (And again we get a Lostie with father issues, following in the footsteps of Jin, Sun, Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Locke.) The flashback takes a few years later in Claire’s life, and we see her pregnant and visiting her mom, still comatose, in an assisted living facility. Claire talks to her telling her she’s pregnant and giving up the baby. As Claire leaves, she says “see you soon”. This was probably right before Claire boarded Oceanic Flight 815. Back on the island, Claire comes up with an idea to catch a seagull which has been tagged, and attach a note to it so when it flies back to an area where it might be caught and tracked for its tag, someone would get the note and send help. The problem was that Desmond kept scaring the birds saying he was trying to catch a boar. Charlie mopes about her idea, making her wonder why the recently happy Charlie was now back to mopey Charlie. She follows Desmond to a gulls nest, where he catches the gull, gives it to Claire, and then tells her about his visions of Charlie’s impending death, and he purposely was scaring the birds earlier knowing he could get this one instead of Charlie finding it, cuz he would’ve died trying to reach it. Claire tells Charlie what she knows, and says she will not give up on him. Nice moment.

Locke: While leading the prisoner, Mikhail Bakunin (Eye Patch Guy), towards the “Barracks”, a series of pylons are found on the plateau. Described as a security system, John tries to get info from Mikhail who comments that this John Locke is not the Locke he knew. “The Locke I knew was para…..” and then Rousseau cuts him off. Para? Para what? Para-dise? Para-keet? Para-fanalia? Para-shoes? Or perhaps he was going to say para-LYZED? Could it be that the Others know/knew of Locke’s condition? Seems likely. Locke, tired of keeping the prisoner alive to begin with, decides to test Mikhail’s statement of the security system not working, and pushes him past the plane of the pylons. This doesn’t bode well for Mikhail who is immediately blasted with sonic waves that kill him. Again, Locke apologizes to Sayid et al. saying he had no way to know that this was what would happen. However, Locke’s word begins to come into question when Sayid finds a block of the C4 explosives that were in the Flame hatch. Locke, in the last episode, told Sayid he had no way to know the Flame was rigged to blow. Now, however, it seems that Sayid is rigged to blow…..up at John if he does one more stupid thing.

Sayid: The tensions between Sayid and Locke continue to grow. There’s gonna be a throw-down soon, I think between these two.

Mikhail Bakunin: At the rate the Losties are killing the Others, you’d think they’d be able to take over the island soon. He did say something interesting when he said that he had been brought to the island by a “magnificient man” (last week he said he answered an ad for Dharma, so could the magnificient man be Alvar Hanso?). Mikhail noted that Ben is not the one he’s referring to. Mikhail becomes another casualty, this time the victim of the sonic wave-blast created when he was pushed by Locke through the plane of two of the pylons. We got blood coming out of ears, blood being spit, frothy mouth, and convulsions. This is guy is dead. Side note: a Google search of this name reveals a Mikhail Bakunin who lived from 1814-1876 in Russia and Switzerland, and was one of the founding fathers of Anarchism. Considered to be a historical rival of Karl Marx, Bakunin argued that to obtain total freedom one would have to abolish the State. I’m just sayin’……

Danielle Rousseau: Anybody besides me think this woman is hiding a whole of something from the Losties?

Kate: Okay, for the guys out there, how many of you wished you were that tree she was shimmying up? Anyway, the look on Kate’s face when she saw Jack playing football, seemingly enjoying his stay at Otherville. She tried to call out to him, but Sayid stopped her.

Christian Sheppard: **in his best Darth Vader voice**: Claire, (heavy breath) I’m your father. I’m beginning to wonder if there’s anybody on the island that this guy hasn’t fathered. This is a revelation that is not a surprise as this connection appeared in the Ana Lucia flashback ep last year when she accompanied Christian to Australia as his “protection”, and they went by a house where Christian was at the door telling a blond woman (whom we know now was Aunt Lindsay) saying he wanted to see “her”. That must’ve happened right after the accident, I’m guessing, and Christian was trying to reach out again to Claire. It’s still interesting that in island-time, Christian is dead (having died in Australia…Jack’s reason for being in Australia was to claim his body), but he’s been in so many flashbacks I’m wondering if he’s playing a bigger, as yet undefined, role in this whole Lost mystery.

Jack: That’s Uncle Jack if you’re Aaron. So, Claire and Jack are half-siblings. Jack doesn’t know it. Claire doesn’t know it. But I bet the Others know it and will be the ones to reveal it to them. Until then, Jack looks nice and relaxed at the Barracks, playing football with his old pal Tom. But, has he been brainwashed? Has he conceded that he’s going to be on the island for a long time? Or, is he biding his time and waiting for the right time to make his move.

Sawyer: This guy could become a librarian when he gets off the island with the amount of books he’s read since crashing. This time we see him reading Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead”, a book about a man who refuses to compromise for anyone. That could be said about any number of people on the island: Sawyer, Jack, Locke. Of course, with Sawyer on nickname-lockdown because of his ping pong game loss, he didn’t shoot out any good ones this episode, though he almost called Claire “Barbie” before Hurley “ah-ah-ah’d” to stop him at “Bar….” Ha ha! You could just tell how much Sawyer wanted to say Barbie, but settled for a sarcastic “Claire”.

The Barracks: Nice little village, with bicycles, pets, footballs, paved sidewalks. How big is this island?

Misc:
1. This was yet another episode that opened up with a close up shot of someone’s eye. This time it was Claire’s.
2. Anybody remember those characters named Walt and Michael? Where could they be? Did they really get off the island, or are they back on it somewhere else? Or are they also at the Barracks?
3. I hope Clarie used waterproof paper to write their note cuz if that gull ever lands on the water to catch a fish, that note is gonna be destroyed.

Next week looks good and appears to be a Locke-centric episode. I’m thinking we get the story of his paralysis and put him in the wheelchair. I’m wheel-y looking forward to it! **groan**

Let me know what I missed.

Until next week,

Namaste.

*joe

Great LOST sites:http://lost.cubit.net/forum/index.php

http://darkufo.blogspot.com/

7 Wonders of the World

There’s a group called the NewOpenWorldFoundation that has gotten a discussion going about the Seven Wonders of The World.

The current wonders are:
1. The Great Pyramikd of Giza
2. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
3. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
4. The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
5. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
6. The Colossus of Rhodes
7. The Pharos of Alexandria

However, NOWF is having a vote at their website that you can take part in to create the new Seven Wonders of The World list. http://www.new7wonders.com/index.php

So go vote! The new list will be announced in Lisben, Portugal on July 7, 2007.

The list being voted on is of big, eye-catching buildings, statues, etc. These are all okay, I guess, but, I’ve created my own list of the 7 Wonders of the World as seen through the eyes of The Finest Kind of Pork:

1. Grilled Cheese Sandwiches: C’mon, who doesn’t like these things? Bread, butter, cheese and a hot pan create the simplest, yet yummiest of meals. These work out for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack. Even when served cold, a grilled cheese sandwich makes for some good eating.
2. Dental Floss: There is nothing like the feeling of knowing that all of the food you’ve eaten is no longer stuck between your teeth. Especially in that area of your front teeth, where a piece of chawed up grilled cheese sandwich could be hanging on without your knowledge, but it’s location is painfully obvious to anybody who is looking at you.
3. Disc Golf: This is perhaps the greatest game on the planet. Take a disc, or Frisbee as many of you may it as, throw it towards an above-ground target. Count your throws. After navigating 18 targets, or holes, the person with the fewest shots wins. If you haven’t played it, I recommend you give it a try. It’s cheap, it’s fun, it’s a great sport in which you can drink beer while playing.
4. Beer: I don’t even need to comment as this speaks for itself.
5. Hemp Plants: The male plants can be used for making hemp-based products that are far superior to their paper- or cotton-based cousins. Hemp paper is way stronger and more durable than wood paper. Hemp fabric is far tougher than cotton fabric. Hemp rope is far stronger and last longer than regular rope. So, with all that good out of one product, the government made it illegal. Brilliant. Maybe the politicians need to inhale more of the female plants buds to relax a little. It’s all about relaxing. I’m relaxing right now. (And, jonesing for a grilled cheese sandwich.)
6. Pussy: actually, I’ve stopped jonesing for the grilled cheese sandwich at this point.
7. TV: when there’s no pussy around, what better way to enjoy the day than with a little television. And with 8 million channels to pick from, you can always find something on. And the great thing about TV is that it goes great with beer, weed and grilled cheese sandwiches.

As a side note, none of my Top 7 Wonders of the World made it to the list on NewOpenWorldFoundation’s website. I wish there was a place there to put your own submissions, but there is not. And who could blame them? Pussy would beat the Eiffel Tower and Stonehenge hands down!

Lost, Season 3, Episode 11, “Enter 77” (3/7/07)

I really look forward to Wednesday nights again! Last night’s episode continued to mine the backstory of one of the Losties, this time Sayid, while moving the story forward with more information about the hatches, the Dharma Initiative, and the dynamics of the different groups on the island.

What do you think, gang? Some of you were beginning to lose interest in the show with the focus having been on the Others for several episodes. But now that we’re back to our original gang, are you feeling the island mysteries and the stories of the Losties to be intriguing again?

“Enter 77” was a real good episode. And once again, Locke blindly follows the computer and begins pushing buttons.


Sayid: Sayid’s backstory as a torturer continues to haunt him. A man, Sami, lures Sayid to his restaurant where he (Sayid) is taken prisoner by the man who wants Sayid to admit to being the torturer of his wife. Though Sayid continues to deny that he knows the woman, the man continues to keep him locked up and beats him to get Sayid to confess. Eventually, after the wife, Amira, asks Sayid to admit that he did it, Sayid caves and weepingly says he’s sorry he tortured her. At this point, she forgives him saying “we are all capable of (evil), but I will not be that”. Back to the island, Sayid, Locke and Kate continue their jaunt into the jungle following Locke’s idea that the “message” on Eko’s stick (“lift your eyes look North, John 3:05) will lead them to the Others. Sayid is doubtful of this, but continues on. (NOTE: just wonderin’ this, how is the compass now working and pointing them North if the magnetic issues of the island made the compass go wacky in Season 1? Maybe their far enough away from the magnetic source…?). Eventually, they come upon a farm(The Flame hatch) hidden deep in the jungle, and Sayid recognizes the man he sees there: it’s Spooky Eye Patch guy!! They sneak into the camp, but Sayid is shot by Eye Patch Guy who yells “You crossed the line, you said you’d leave me alone!” The line? The same line that Tom told Jack/Kate/Sawyer not to cross in Season 2? They convince the guy that they are not who he thinks they are, and he takes them in, and repairs the bullet wound to Sayid’s arm. He tells them that he is the last living member of the Dharma Initiative, and that he was allowed to stay in the hatch if he left the “hostiles” (aka The Others) alone. Sayid does not believe that he is a Dharma member, but plays along to get more information. Thinking that Eye PatchGuy, Mikhail Bakunin, may not be alone, Sayid finds a trap door in the floor that leads to a basement. He and Kate find Ms Klugh hiding down there. Sayid also finds a map of the power grid for the island, and he, Kate, Locke and prisoner Mikhail leave to find the main compound listed as “The Bunkers”. Sayid opts not to kill Mikhail thinking of Amira’s plea to not become like the evil that surrounds us.

Locke: Has this guy ever met a button he couldn’t push? Inside the farm/Flame hatch, Locke begins to play chess on the computer located there. Mikhail tells Locke he’ll never beat it and that the computer cheats. Locke explains that computers don’t cheat, only people do. Locke eventually beats the chess game, and when he does, a video with Dr Marvin Candle/Wickman pops up saying stuff about what key numbers to press to contact the sonar, the communications, etc. When Locke tries these numbers, the message says they are not working. Then Candle says “if there has been an incursion by the hostiles, Enter 77”. After they leave the hatch with Mikhail, Locke enters 77, and as they get to the edge of compound outside, the entire building explodes, destroying everything.

Kate: In the hidden cellar, Kate is jumped by Ms Klugh who is then subdued by Sayid. Kate tells Sayid that this woman was there at the docks when she, Sawyer, Jack and Hurley were taken. She tells Sayid that she knows where Jack would be.

Rousseau: On the jungle party with Kate, Sayid and Locke, Rousseau refuses to enter the Flame compound with them saying that she has never seen this place before, but she will not encroach on the territory because she has kept alive by avoiding “them”. There’s something not right about this woman. No duh, you say. I’m wondering if she was part of the Others, but was then banished. How she never saw the farm/Flame hatch is a mystery, unless of course she’s lying and knows all about it. She’s some kind of turncoat, I think. It’s just a matter of figuring out if she turned on the Dharma Initiative, or if she turned on The Others. Makes me think she’ll be turing on the Losties soon too.

Hurley: After the Losties find and assemble a ping pong table, they realize they’re missing a ball. Sawyer brings a plastic golf ball, and says they can use it, but only if they play him. If he wins, he gets the stuff back that was taken from his tent while on The Others’ island. If he loses? He has to give up calling everybody by the nicknames he makes up. Hurley ends up being chosen to play Sawyer because Hurley says he had a lot of time to play while living in the basement of his Mom’s house. Hurley SMOKES Sawyer, and thus, Sawyer is off from nickname-making-up for the next week. Hurley also gives Sawyer back his magazines in a gesture of goodwill. Which Sawyer, of course, acts all smart-ass about.

Sawyer: Okay, where to start. He lost the ping pong game to Hurley, and now he can’t call people by nicknames for a week. For us, however, he had plenty of time to give us some classic Sawyer lines:
1. When he sees Paulo and Nikki, he says “Who the hell are you?”, a sentiment shared with everyone who watches this show. Funny! Even funnier, though, when Paulo called Sawyer a “hillbilly”.
2. Calls Hurley the Grimace! Calls Hurley Avalanche! Calls Paulo Zorro!
3. Hurley, in talking about when he can’t make something happen: “I just make myself a salad and move on,”, to which Sawyer replies “I can see that’s workin’ for you”.
4. Calls Jin and Sun “Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon”

Miss (Bea) Klugh: When she was led out of the Flame hatch by Sayid and Kate, she sees Mikhail holding a gun to Locke’s head, and starts talking to him in Russian. I found a site that had translated what she and Mikhail were saying in Russian (Ukrainian?) to each other, and she was saying “You know what to do! We cannot risk it.” Mikhail kept reiterating “there’s another way. We have another way”, but Klugh says “this is an order”, at which point Mikhail shoots and kills (?) Klugh.

Jin: Funny that he was the one who said (in Korean to Sun, who translated) that if Hurley won the ping pong match that Sawyer would have to give up calling people by his nicknames for one week. Nice to Jin loosening up. Of course, that will change if it turns out that Sun’s baby is actually Jae’s.

Mikhail Bakunin: While claiming to be the last living member of the Dharma Initiative, Mikhail tells Sayid, Locke and Kate of his past in the Russian Army (from Kiev, stationed in Vladivostok), but after getting out answering an ad that said “do you want to help save the world”, where he was introduced to the Dharma Initiative. He said they are “very smart and very smart”. He said he’s been on the island 11 years (meaning he would’ve arrived in 1993), and that the Flame hatch was for communicating with the outside world. He said that there was an incursion and attack by the hostiles (aka The Others), but they lef him stay there and would leave him alone as long as he didn’t cross the “line” out of the valley. He said the hostiles were on the island long before Dharma. He tells them of the various cables running all over the island, including one that runs into the ocean to communicate with the sonar that operates the submarine. Soon, it is revealed that this guy is NOT part of Dharma, but is most likely one of the Others.

Miscellaneous: Okay, grab onto your hats.
1. The Purge: So, let’s say that The Others were on the island before Dharma Initiative selected that island for their tests. When the Dharma’s moved in, they would, in effect, be considered ‘hostiles’ by the island-living Others. Fearing a takeover by an outside force, they would’ve taken steps to get rid of the Dharma group. This may have included attacking the hatches, and eventually coming to an agreement with the Dharma group saying something along the lines of “as long as you stay over there and don’t come over here”…you know, “cross the line”…..”we can coexist”. But, Dharma may have instead sent lots of people to fight them, and I’m wondering if Dharma, with all of their money and knowledge, didn’t create the SMonster as a way to find the hostile ones. Somehow the SMonster can sense bad in someone, and reacts by exterminating them, or something like that. Makes me wonder if the bodies that the Losties found in the caves in Season One, and maybe the body of Henry Gale, were killed in the Battle of the Purge.
2. Walt and the chess game: Walt was held in the Flame hatch, so he would have had access to the chess game. The chess game is, in my opinion, a way to destroy the hatch without an intruding force knowing it. If the hatch had been taken over by hostiles, the chess game would’ve been the cover to hide the fact that it was that computer that was the self destruct. There was probably an easy way for someone working with Dharma to just punch a key or two and the destruct information (the Marvin Candle video) would’ve come up. But, there was also a way to enter by beating the computer at chess. Walt probably figured this out, and the first time he beat the chess game, figured out how to use the number sequence (“Enter 56”, or whichever number it was), and was then able to communicate with his father, who was still back in the Swan Hatch after killing Ana Lucia.
3. Nadia Comaneci: I took a look at her website (www.nadiacomaneci.com) and saw that, interestingly enough, in 1967 she joined a gym club called “The Flame”.
4. The Cat: You noticed, I’m sure, that the cats in the episode, the one on the island at the Flame hatch, and the one in Sayid’s flashback, looked very similar. Interesting that the one at the Flame was named Nadia, but not because of Sayid’s Nadia, but because of the gymnast mentioned above. Maybe it was the SMonster….
5. Dharma Binders: The binders that Sayid found in the basement were labeled with various Dharma Projects, including the “food drop” program. Too bad the Losties won’t be able to use those for information since button-happy Locke destroyed them when he entered 77.


Until next week,

Namaste.

Great sites for Lost forums, screen shots, etc.:

http://lost.cubit.net/forum/index.php

http://darkufo.blogspot.com/

International Women’s Day

I love you, women of the world, here at TFKoP, and to honor your amazing beauty, kindness and greatness, I’d like to wish you all a great International Women’s Day.

May all of your wishes come true.

And may one of you wish that I was dating you. ;-)

Ms Pac Man

Happy 25th Birthday, Ms Pac Man.

Oh, if only you knew how many of my quarters you ate back in your early days as a video game.

Did you and Mr Pac Man ever work out as a couple? Or did you just eat each other a lot?

Badly Drawn Boy

There’s a musician I really dig a lot named Badly Drawn Boy. His real name is Damon Gough, and he’s from England. I don’t really know how to describe his sound…he’s a bit of a storyteller, and keeps the melodies pretty casual and simple in his music. He claims that the music comes much easier than the lyrics, but that’s hard to believe if you read and listen to his words as they are filled with great imagery, as well as the joys and pains of being alive.

He has released 5 albums commercially: “The Hour of the Bewilderbeast” in June of 2000; he did the soundtrack for the very good movie “About a Boy” in April of 2002; “Have You Fed The Fish?” in November of 2002; “One Plus One is One” in June of 2004 and most recently “Born in The UK” in October of 2006.

I have them all, and like them all. I guess if I had to give a “favorite”, it would be “About a Boy”, followed by “The Hour of the Bewilderbeast”, but this by no means is meant to imply that I have any bad feelings about the other three releases.

Anyway, BDB began his current US tour in Philadelphia last Saturday night (March 3, 2007) at the Theater of the Living Arts (the TLA), and I was there. (NOTE: The TLA is a 15-minute walk from my house, and it’s my favorite venue for concerts. It holds about 1,000 people, so all of the shows are nice and close and you feel like you’re part of the stage because the band is so close.) It was a fantastic show!! I saw BDB at the TLA in November of 2004 in support of his then-new “One Plus One Is One” album. That too was a good show, but I think Saturday’s show was actually better. Hard to be objective, I guess. He played for about 2 and a half hours, with the set list focusing mostly on his new album (Born in the UK), and a decent amount of tunes from his first one (The Hour of the Bewilderbeast). They did songs from the other albums, too, of course.

I don’t have the exact order of songs, but I think I can remember most of what he played: Without a Kiss; Welcome to the Overground; Nothing’s Gonna Change Your Mind; Born in the UK; Journey from A to B; Degrees of Separation; The Further I Slide; A Minor Incident; Once Around the Block; This is That New Song; The Shining; Above You Below Me; Long Way Round; All Possibilities; Promises; Walk You Home Tonight; Silent Sigh; You Were Right; The Way Things Used to Be; Cause a Rockslide; Fall in a River; Everybodys Stalking; Donna and Blitzen; Magic in the Air; Thunder Road.

Hmmm…is that correct? I’m sure I’ve missed some tunes, and may have inadvertently injected some he didn’t play, but I’m pretty sure that’s a close list.

The cool thing about BDB is that he also spends time talking to the crowd, so between songs he banters a lot. He actually began the show by saying he felt like the band might be a bit rusty, but they sounded great.

The uncool thing about BDB is that he’s a big fan of Bruce Sprinsteen. Gag!!! I just am not a fan of Springsteen. His music is all the same, and he can’t sing, and he’s boring. There…I said it. He’s boring. So, it’s amazing that BDB is so drawn to his music. It’s no coincidence that BDB’s album title is a take on Bruce’s “Born in the USA”, and he also is playing “Thunder Road” as part of his set this time around. I remember from his November 2004 show at the TLA he talked for about 10 minutes about meeting Bruce Sprinsteen in England in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. Regardless, BDB is a fave of mine.

So if you get a chance, check out Badly Drawn Boy. And if you have time to see him in the States on his brief tour, go catch him. $21 for a 2 ½ hour show is an awesome deal for such a great musician and band, eh?

Lost, Season 3, Episode 10, “Tricia Tanaka is Dead” (2/28/07)

Hi gang! Thursday morning means Lost wrap-up.

For those of you who feel that you’re losing your grip on this show I say C’MON! You bought into the whole mystical/bizarre/eerie nature of the show in the first season. You knew this would not be your typical boring formulaic TV show (a la the boring “Law & Order” spinoffs; “Prison Break”; “CSI”) where you get the set-up in the first 10 minutes, the possible killers/guilty person in the next 15 minutes, the gather of clues in the next 10 minutes, and the nice neat little wrap up right before the show ends in the last 7 or 8 minutes. Granted, there’s a place for that kind of tedious TV show. But this LOST. And LOST is about the entire arc of the show, not each individual episode.

So, if you’ve grown weary of having the island mysteries partially explained by having the Others highlighted in the last several episodes (because let’s face it, the LOST island is all about what is being done and how it affects the Losties), then you must’ve been overjoyed to have the show return to the beach with the familiar faces that launched this show.

And what better way than to make it a Hurley-centric episode. Remember, “Everybody Loves Hugo”! Ha ha!

There was a theme of “hope” running through this episode: Hurley hoping to get rid of his bad luck; Kate hoping for an apology from Sawyer; Charlie hoping he doesn’t die; etc.


Hurley: What a shocker…another Lostie with father issues (a regularly recurring theme). Hurley’s flashback shows him as a boy watching his dad walk out the door and heading to Las Vegas, but not before he apologizes to Hugo (Hurley) for having to cancel their trip to the Grand Canyon. It ends up being 17 years before the father returns, and he returns to try to get some of Hurley’s lottery winnings. As a kid, Hurley was working on a Camero with his dad, but they couldn’t get it to work. Also, the candy bar he was eating as a kid was a “Glacier Bar”, not an Apollo Bar. Hurley buying Mr Clucks and hiring Randy Nation, his old boss from Mr Clucks (and remember that Randy was also John Locke’s boss at the box factory). The reporter, Tricia Tanaka, from a local station is doing a puff-piece about Hurley’s lotter winnings when he tells her of his streak of bad luck. She tells him “this is a puff piece”, and to stop with the gloom. She enters the restaurant with her camera man to start getting interior shots of the store, while Hurley and Randy are outside. At this point, a meteor comes crashing down through the sky and destroys Mr Clucks. At this point, “Tricia Tanaka is Dead”. (How cool was that asteroid/meteor scene???!!!) Back on the island, the opening scene with Hurley talking to Libby at her gravesite was kind of nice. **tearing up** Hurley follows Vincent, who is carrying a mummified looking arm in his mouth and a set of keys hanging from the hand, into the jungle. Vincent leads Hurley to a VW-looking van (the Dharmamobile) which is laying on its side. In the van is the decayed body of a Roger (Work Man), and lots of Dharma Beer in cans. Hurley recruits Jin to help him right the van, and they try to get it started. The return of Sawyer and Kate puts Hurley in a great mood, eh? He gets Sawyer to help he and Jin get the van up on its tires, and they try to get it running. Hurley also gets Charlie to come to the van, and the two of them take the joy ride down the hill and are able to jump-start the van. They then pick up Jin and Sawyer and ride in circles on the grassy plateau. Great scene with everyone enjoying themselves. For the first time Hurley actually looked relaxed and stress-free.

David Rayes: Hurley’s dad, played by Cheech Marin. Leaves the family while Hurley is still a boy to go to Las Vegas, and returns 17 years later to try to get some of Hurley’s lottery money. Hurley does not have any respect for his father, but the dad tries anyway. Hurley not interested in giving his dad any of the lottery money, but the Dad tries for redemption when he sees that Hugo still has the Camero, and wants to help him fix it. The Dad does not win any favors though by hiring a psychic to tell Hurley that the numbers are not cursed. Hurley sees through this and makes his plans to go to Australia to find Mrs Toomey (Season 1….remember??) to find out about the curse that the numbers carry. (NOTE: I think the writers missed a golden opportunity here: it would’ve been SO funny if when Hurley, Sawyer, and Jin had gotten the van righted if Cheech would’ve come stumbling out of the back in a cloud of smoke with Chong and big fattie being shared between them!!!)

Charlie: Still freaked out about Desmond telling him that he’s gonna die, Charlie sulks a bit in this episode, especially after Desmond tells him that he’s not able to tell him WHEN he’s going to die. Hurley, however, finds a way to lift Charlie’s spirits by taking him on the ride in the Dharmamobile, down the steep hill. When Hurley was able to pop the clutch and get the van started, he narrowly avoided crashing into some rocks. By not crashing (and not dying), Charlie looked a little less worried about it, and amazingly happy to be cruising around instead of moping around. His days, however, are probably numbered.

Sawyer: The arguing between him and Kate continued. But more importantly was how cool he was received by Hurley. Hurley has endured the brunt of Sawyer’s nicknames (Sta-Puff; Snuffalupagus; Hurley-Man, etc), but was so excited to see Sawyer when he came looking for him to ask about his tent being raided. Hurley hugged Sawyer and was so excited, it immediately diffused Sawyer being mad. And, Hurley was able to recruit Sawyer (“Hey, you guys found a hippie-car!”) to help him and Jin get the Dharmamobile back in operation. Of course Sawyer was more interested in getting the Dharma-suds, but he helped them none-the-less, and by the end of the show, the happy 4-some was joy riding around the glen in the beat-up van. But, the funniest was Sawyer teaching Jin some English, especially teaching him the 3 things that women like to hear:
1. I’m sorry
2. You’re right.
3. Those pants don’t make you look fat.
Also funny his comment about the dead/mummified driver looking like Skeletor (for those of you not aware, Skeletor was the bad guy in the He-Man cartoons).

Jin: So, he didn’t have much to do or say this episode, but it was good to see him back. As he was welcoming Sawyer back in his slow, broken English, Sawyer did reply “look who’s hooked on phonics”, which was quite funny.

Kate: Still peeved with Sawyer, says it’s okay for him to say ‘he’s sorry’, but Sawyer won’t do it. Kate tells Sayeed and Locke about what happened on the Others island, and tells them that the Others gave Walt and Michael a boat and allowed them to leave. She has an idea of where to get help, and goes looking, and finds, Rousseau. She tells Rousseau about a girl named Alex who is about 16 years old and helped them escape.

Sayeed/Locke: Again, not much to do in this episode, but Kate does tell them about the Others’ work island (Alcatraz), and about what happened to them over there. She tells them that the Others still have Jack. Sayeed mentions that he and Locke may know where they’re at based on the clue from Eko’s Jesus Stick (Lift up your eyes and look North).

Vincent: Finally, the dog returns! His big thing is leading Hurley to the Dharmamobile. Wonder if they let him keep the mummy-arm as a treat, y’know, like a doggie biscuit! Or maybe a hand-burger!


Miscellaneous:
1. The tune playing on Hurley’s 8-trak in the flashback was Three Dog Night’s “Shambala”. Shambala is a mystical kingdom in the Tibetan Buddhist philosophy that is hidden beyond the Himalayas. Shambala is Sanskrit meaning “place of peace/tranquility”. So, it was interesting when Hurley is able to pop the clutch and get the van going that “Shambala” also comes out of the van radio.
2. The Map in the Van: Hmmm…..this island must be bigger than originally thought to have a road as big/long as the one on the map. I’ll assume this map comes back into the story at a later date. Maybe it leads to where the Others live on that island? After all, where would Roger have been going with all that beer??
3. Rousseau: She’s back……

Comments are totally welcome!!

Until next week,

Namaste.

*joe

Great LOST sites:
http://lost.cubit.net/forum/index.php

http://darkufo.blogspot.com/